Quickdraw Slow Burn (Battle of the Bulls #3) - T. S. Joyce Page 0,30

map of their rooms… All of them this time?”

“You should kill him.”

The idea whispered right through her mind, but Annabelle hadn’t missed it. The wolf had said “you” not “we.” She didn’t have access to the animal.

And besides, what good would it do to snuff out the arm of the problem? Someone was behind Dante, giving him orders, and whoever that was, whatever organization, it was much more dangerous than Dante himself.

Dante was the bullet. She needed to dismantle the gun.

Annabelle jogged to the end of that hallway and slipped through a gate that separated the conference room from the arena. To the side were alleyways enclosed behind metal gates that created a maze that the cowboys could use to move the bulls into position into their chutes when it was their turn to buck for the finals. The first round was tomorrow, so the dirt was already raked and pristine. There was a set of boot tracks that led to a metal gate and then disappeared. He must’ve gone up and over, then onto the raised walkway to the right because the tracks didn’t appear again in the dirt on the other side.

“Clever shifter.”

Anabelle sniffed the air, and it was thick with Dante’s scent.

“Look.”

There was movement a few holding pens down. Dante was up on the last barrier of gates on the other side.

Fast as she could manage, she pulled her phone up and zoomed in, snapped a picture of him.

Dante froze, then turned right toward her.

She gasped softly and jerked back, pressed her shoulders against the wall out of the line of sight of the shifter.

Such bright green eyes. Not a lion shifter, that was for sure. Those big cats always wore gold in their irises.

“Maybe a wolf. Maybe a wolf. Maybe a wolf like us.”

A gate closer to her groaned under his weight, and she cursed to herself. He was coming back.

She fought the urge to run. Running only dredged up the kill instinct in predator shifters, so she hit the video record button on her phone and shoved it in her back pocket, camera facing out. And then she walked a steady pace back in the direction she’d come from.

She could feel him behind her, and chills rippled up the back of her neck. He didn’t feel right. He didn’t feel good.

“Are you hunting me?” a gritty voice asked.

Annabelle turned toward him but kept her face calm. He was only three feet from her, leaning against the wall. So close, and she hadn’t even heard his bootsteps.

She swallowed the snarl that threatened to claw its way up the back of her throat. “I’m hunting a bathroom.”

The lights weren’t turned on here, and his eyes looked even greener in the shadows, as if they were glowing. “You walked right past it.”

She allowed an empty smile. “So did you.”

“Hmmmm,” he rumbled. No growl in his throat to hint at what he was. “Go on, little wolf. Go back to where it’s safe.”

“Is anywhere really safe for people like us?” she asked.

He canted his head like a wild, curious animal. “I suppose not.”

“Then you should go back with me,” she said. “Safety in numbers and all.”

“Oh, little wolf. You aren’t safe with me.”

Annabelle leaned forward and whispered, “Neither are you.”

And then she turned and did something her wolf hated. Hated. She gave her back to a predator.

Her hands were shaking because she could feel him watching her leave. Feel his attention on her. Something was wrong with him. He was dark. He was bad. He’d done bad things.

She could sense the evil on people now, and that man…that thing…was evil.

And the back of her neck was completely exposed.

Chills, chills, chills.

If she could change, she wouldn’t be as scared. If she could call on her wolf, her hands wouldn’t be shaking right now.

“Stay calm.”

Annabelle rounded the corner and ran into a wall. At least that’s what it felt like. She took a breath to scream as a pair of impossibly strong hands gripped her shoulders.

“Annabelle.” The deep tenor of Quickdraw’s voice slowed time, and she looked up into his dark eyes.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered, turning in his grasp to see if Dante was still there. The hallway behind her was empty.

“What’s wrong? Did someone fuck with you?” He searched the hallway, fire in his eyes.

“I…I have to get back into the conference room.” She scrambled to pull her phone out of her pocket and stopped the recording. “I have to take pictures of one of the cameras in there